Intimacy and Ageing

Torbjörn Bildtgård is Associate Professor in Sociology at Stockholm University, Sweden. Torbjörn has published mainly within two research areas – Food and Meal Studies and Social Gerontology. Peter Öberg is Professor in Social work, at the Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, University of Gävle, Sweden. He has devoted his academic career to social gerontology and he is currently Editor in Chief for The International Journal of Ageing and Later Life.

Introduction;
Intimacy and ageing in late modernity;
The changing landscape of intimacy in later life;
From marriage to alternative union forms;
A life of relationships;
Attitudes towards new romantic relationships;
Initiation and development of new romantic relationships;
A new partner as a resource for social support;
Consequences for social network and support structures;
Sex in an ideology of love;
Time as a structuring condition for new intimate relationships in later life;
Discussion;
Methodological Appendix.